The Pearls of Catharsis Times Issue 02, Dec 2016 | Page 26

" Stretching your sleeves is much more effective than wearing gloves, right?" He made another attempt to make me laugh to which my sole reflex was pulling the sleeves of my sweater back, and subsequently reaching for my cuffs. Now this young man in front of me started fiddling with my things. I was supposed to have flared my nostrils or at least snap at him. But, I didn ' t. Something was seriously wrong with me. I normally wouldn ' t stand an outsider touching my things without my permission. Maybe he wasn ' t an " outsider." I dusted that thought away and questioned my own sanity. " Is that your guitar?" He asked, raising one of his eyebrows; the left one to be exact. I nodded a yes, expressionlessly. " Then do you play?" He interrogated. " No. Not anymore." I somehow managed to utter a couple of words. He went ahead and picked it up. " Well, this is quite dusty," he spoke, not expecting a reply. He wiped off the dust with his undershirt, and then came towards me with the guitar. " Hey listen, I am aware of your loss. I can see it in your eyes." My eyes popped out at that statement. " No, not really. Your mother told me," he said, without batting an eyelid to his own witty remark. But his former sentence gave me some encouragement to take things off my chest. " Well it all happened last Christmas." Something or rather someone was making me feel at ease, while talking about it. Instead of asking me more about it, he simply strummed the guitar strings in a melodramatic tone, but then gestured me to continue my story. " This guitar was actually a gift from him. And he used to teach me. Whatever little I know, it ' s through him. But I have lost the courage to play it again. He would often tell me about his dream girl, and I slowly fell in love with him. That gave me an idea to surprise him. I dressed like her on the day we were supposed to perform at the church. But just as I was about to run towards him, a truck..." I trailed off, and completely zoned out. He kept his hand on my shoulder and said, " See, I know it ' s not going to be okay, and I am not going to comfort you by saying that either. Just know that your life also has a purpose on this planet." Then looking at the bizarre decorations around us; the grey wreath,